Brands:How to/profiting from an engaged community

It is no longer news that the success of any brand rests solidly on the depth of relationship it has with all its stakeholders. No brand can be successful running a solo raise now. Every brand needs committed community members who are not only interested in working hard with the brand but who can work hard on the brand’s interest on their own freewill. As we now there is no community that thrives well on individualistic spirit and self serving leaders.

Today I just want to share a brief of what i took away from a personal research on the topic. Some of these thoughts are taken from Juliet Powell’s book and I do recommend it to anyone who is interested in building a strong community that is highly beneficial.

Find where they are: there is no strong community without proper understanding of the culture and environment they live. I expect my friend to know where I live. That shows the individual cares. So the first step in building engaged tribe is to know where they live. You may need also to study the community they live and find out what is important to the community members.

Understand the audience strength: a brand needs to understand the community audience strength. The mistakes most brand make is to focus energy only on the influential. But like Ducan watts says ‘most social change is driven not by influential, but by easily influenced individuals influencing others easily influenced individuals’. The point is everyone is important even though we may have priority.

Understand their habits and motivation: To influence anyone, you must first care about the person. So be sure you study what motivates them and what their concerns are.

Cater for their natural Interest: now that you know what motivates them, care like no other persons for their interest. Share links, give them referrals. Continuously give helping hands. Answer their question. Help them to understand your brand too.

Reward social influencers: in helping out, it is natural law that some of the community member will begin to think they owe you and they will be willing to help spread the buzz about you. Along the line you will noticed some dedicated community members who will go extra miles in making sure your brand excels.

In conclusion, we must note that having engaged community or tribe is work but the ROI is unquantifiable. An engaged community is extremely powerful tool that can provide self-perpetuating support and guidance system for you and your business.